The Jealousy of God # 1

The Jealousy of God # 1

Read: Ex. 20:5; Ex. 34:14; Deut. 4:24; Zech. 1:14; 1 Kings 19: 10, 14; Song of Songs 8:6; John 2:17; 2 Cor. 11:2.

The Nature of the Jealousy

You will see from these passages that there is something of a paradox in relation to jealousy. On the one hand the very worst things are said about it. Jealous is as cruel as the grave, and we know that the very worst things recorded in the Scriptures were done through jealousy. We are even informed that the Lord Jesus Himself was put to death through jealousy; that is, on the human side. And yet, on the other hand, it is shown to be a Divine attribute, one of the outstanding features of God: "The Lord thy God is a jealous God"; "the Lord, whose name is jealous".

The only way in which to reconcile the two things is to understand what jealousy is. We only need to be quiet with the word for a few moments and we shall soon arrive at the nature of jealousy. Jealousy is the desire to be in absolute and undivided possession of an object, whether that object be a person, or a place, or a position. It is the desire that, in relation to that object, no one else shall have any part, but there shall be an unreserved monopoly. It may be as to the affections; it may be as to the esteem, the recognition, the adoration. It may be in any one of a great many directions that there is this desire to have everything and no one else to share. That is behind jealousy, so that if that object is shared, that position is shared, that recognition is shared, that consideration is shared, then jealousy arises, because someone else is receiving what the individual concerned desires to have all for himself or herself. That is the nature of jealousy.

On the Human Side No Individual has a Right to Monopoly

Now we can come immediately to the point, and, so far as men and women are concerned, so far as human beings are concerned in this creation, no individual has the right to a monopoly. The person does not exist who has unreserved and undivided rights as to objects, places, positions, or any kind of interest. God did not create men for that purpose. The whole principle of the creation is that of fellowship, communion, intercourse, interchange, mutual participation, mutual recognition, and everything that spreads interest over the company rather than concentrates them upon the individual. That on the human side.

On the Divine Side

God is the only Being Who has absolute right to undivided recognition and position.

God is the only one of Whom it can ever be said properly and rightly that He is a jealous God. His Name is Jealous; He is a jealous God! Why? Because all things are His by absolute right, and that distinguishes Him from all the rest of the creation, because He has the right to the absolute place of adoration, affection, consideration, and every other kind of attention and interest. Therefore, at root, jealousy is a tendency, at least, to take God's place. He is the only One Who has a right to be jealous.

We are not dealing with jealousy as a thing. We are for the moment defining it, in order to get to something that is more important than our talking about human faults and failings.

God's Place of Absoluteness in This Universe and in Our Lives

He created all things for Himself. Everything has its very being and existence by Him. Nothing would ever be, but for Him. Everything and everyone owes its very being to Him, and He stands, therefore, in the position of having the right, the absolute right, to preeminent place - to have everything, to have  undivided, unreserved place. The first sin in this universe was the sin of jealousy. From the first sin all the havoc in this universe has proceeded, and it is not just an objective thing. It is something which, like a poison, has entered into the very being of man, so that man's natural tendency is to draw to himself, to have for himself, to be an object of interest, of importance, of consideration,sometimes of adoration. All that is the working of an evil which takes away from God, draws away from God, puts God out of His place. And inasmuch as you or I seek place, position, reputation, or consideration, it may be just the working of that sinister thing.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 2)